


Punfamiliar Territory

by chelseababylove



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, Mlsecretsanta 2k16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 12:45:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9072256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseababylove/pseuds/chelseababylove
Summary: Adrien starts to make puns around Marinette. She doesn't handle it too well. ML Secret Santa





	

**Author's Note:**

> My gift for arcademaven on tumblr!

Marinette likes to think of herself as a fairly intelligent person. Her grades might not always reflect it but that’s what she gets for always being late or skipping class or not finishing assignments, one of the pitfalls of being Ladybug. The point is, she’s creative, observant, and resourceful. Her intuition is usually correct and she can think quick on her feet.

Sometimes life likes to prove her wrong.

It starts, though she doesn’t realize it at the time, with a picnic. Alya somehow convinced Nino and Adrien to hang out with them at the park near Marinette’s house so they’re sitting on a blanket, eating the pastries Marinette’s parents provided.

“Dude, can your parents adopt me,” Nino asks, biting into his third macaron. “I could live off their food forever.”

“Me ‘oo,” Adrien says. He swallows and repeats, “me too.”

“Oh! Well, I—I’ll let them know you liked it,” Marinette says. She’s getting better at talking to him but it’s still a work in progress.

“And they made so much. They really didn’t have to.”

“It’s no problem, I like you. I—I mean they like you. All of you.” Marinette gestures to her three friends. “They like my friends!”

She shuts up before she makes it worse for herself.

Adrien, as always, takes her babbling in stride. “Still, I’d like to stop by after to say thanks. It’s the yeast I could do,” he says before shoving another croissant in his mouth.

Marinette blinks, not expecting a pun coming from Adrien of all people, before letting a small giggle escape. It wasn’t anything new—her father makes bread puns all the time—but she still can’t help but laugh. Especially because he looks so proud of himself.

It reminds her a lot of Chat, if she’s being honest, which is enough to give her courage to reply, “That will proof to be very nice.” She immediately regrets it because really? That was the best she could come up with?

But then Adrien’s eyes light up and the most beautiful smile that has ever existed graces his face and Marinette could never, ever, regret causing that face.

Adrien opens his mouth to respond only to get cut off by a piercing scream. Marinette is immediately on her feet, scanning the park to find the source of the commotion. Unfortunately, that one scream set everyone else off and people are running around, shouting and crying. There’s a huge swarm of bees flying towards them but Marinette can’t spot the person behind them.

“Ooh, it’s coming this way,” Alya says, whipping out her phone.

“Alya, no,” Marinette yells, trying to pull Alya back but it’s too late, her rash best friend is already lost to the crowd. She tries running after her but there’s no point, not when she’s still Marinette. Spotting an alley not too far from them, Marinette sprints over, paying no attention to Adrien or Nino. There’s another scream and Marinette jumps to action, not even bothering to see if the coast is clear. She transforms and swings over to the akuma, puns and picnics long forgotten.

-

Somehow, Adrien has taken Marinette’s one, horrible pun to mean she appreciates puns. A few weeks after the picnic he started using more around her and for the past month has bombarded her with terrible puns whenever he has the chance. It’s gotten to the point where they converse almost entirely on puns and double entendres. She can’t complain, not when she’s actually making huge advancements in talking to him. But it’s a little weird and she doesn’t know what to make of it.

“Hey Marinette. You and I have chemistry,” Adrien says with a wink while they wait for chemistry class to start.

The flirting is a new development and it’s not one she’s handling very well. Her face heats up and she has to look at her desk. “That one was weak.”

“I thought it was pretty good,” he says and Marinette can hear the pout in his voice.

“Class is starting,” she mutters. Marinette stares at the teacher, refusing to make eye contact with Adrien. She still notices when he turns to face front.

“I don’t get it,” Alya says later. They’re hanging out in Marinette’s room and Marinette just finished ranting about her Adrien situation. “Isn’t flirting good?”

“No!” Marinette screams and then shoves her face in a pillow.

“Don’t tell me after years of pining after this boy you’ve finally lost interest once he starts showing some.”

“Of course not,” Marinette says, sitting up and cradling the pillow in her lap.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is he’s flirting with me.”

“Marinette, babe, you know I love you but sometimes…” Alya says, shaking her head.

“We were getting along,” Marinette protests. “Like, really well.”

“I noticed.”

“And then he had to make it weird.”

“It’s not weird if you like him back.”

Marinette can feel herself blushing at Alya’s implication. “He doesn’t like me.”

“Okay, hold up. Let’s go over the facts: Sunshine boy has been seeking out your company for a month, trying very hard to impress you with his bad sense of humor.”

“He hasn’t—”

Alya holds up her hand, immediately shooting down anything Marinette might have said. “After enjoying your less-than-witty pun banter and weird foreplay, he has decided to up the game and come clean with his intentions.”

“Oh my god, Alya,” Marinette says, hiding her face behind the pillow once again.

“But instead of returning the favor and letting our beloved sunflower know that you also want to bump uglies with him—”

“Alya!”

“You’ve decided to revert back to your old ways, where you act like an awkward fool in front of him.”

“I…shut up! I didn’t bring you here to make fun of me.”

Alya laughs. “Seriously girl, what is so wrong with admitting Adrien likes you?”

“It just… seems too good to be true.”

“Coming from the girl who already has her children’s names picked out.”

“Okay, let’s not remind me of that, yeah? It’s just… why now?”

“Because you finally opened up to him and let him talk to you.”

Marinette sits in stunned silence for a minute, letting Alya’s words sink in. Who knew that was all it would take?

-

“Hey Marinette,” Adrien says. Marinette has prepared herself for this moment. Her and Alya went over the plan a million times and then she went over it some more with Tikki once Alya left. She is going to ask him out and he is going to say yes and it will be the start of their future together.

“Hi Adrien.” She steps closer to him and lets her fingers run across the sleeve of his white shirt. Both their faces turn red. “What’s your shirt made of?”

“I… what?”

She takes a deep breath. “Cuz it feels like boyf—”

“Adrikins!”

Marinette has never hated Chloé more than she does in that moment—which is saying something since it’s Chloé.

“Oh, uh, hi Chloé,” Adrien says, rubbing the back of his neck. His face is incredibly, adorably, red and it gets even darker as Chloé latches herself to his arm. “What’s up?”

“I heard you were free for lunch this afternoon so, being the awesome friend I am, I decided to take you to my daddy’s hotel for lunch.”

“Uh…”

“You can thank me later,” she says. “Now, let’s go.”

“Well, I,” Adrien stutters, looking desperately at Marinette.

“Actually, Adrien and I already had plans for lunch,” Marinette says.

“Nobody asked you,” Chloé says, rolling her eyes. “Besides, Adrien would rather spend his free time with me, right?”

“You know I love hanging out with you,” Adrien says, taking Chloé’s hands and gently removing them from his person, “But I promised Marinette.”

Chloé glares at him.

“I can make it up to you this weekend. We’re still going shopping, right?”

The thought of going shopping seemingly lifts Chloé’s spirits so with a toss of her hair and snotty “you better” she struts away.

“Thanks,” Adrien says. “We don’t actually have to go to lunch if you don’t want to.”

“No, I don’t mind. There’s a small place down the road we can go to.”

“Okay, let me just… I have to run to my locker really quick. I’ll meet you at the front?”

“Sounds good.” She makes her way over to the front steps, anxiously waiting for Adrien to come back. This was a date, right? It had to be a date—they were willingly sharing a meal, just the two of them. And he surely knew what she was going to say before she got cut off.

“Hey,” he says, making her jump a little. “I ran into Nino and Alya on my way over here and invited them to come with us.”

Nino and Alya smile at her and she forces herself to smile back. So, not a date. She tries to swallow down her disappointment. She’s still spending time with him.

“The more the merrier,” she says. Nino and Alya take the lead, holding hands and giggling.

“So… what were you going to say before,” Adrien asks as they walk over to the shop. His hands are in his pocket and he’s staring straight ahead—Marinette has no idea what’s going on his mind.

“Before?”

“When Chloé interrupted us, you were in the middle of saying something.”

“Oh,” she replies lamely. Everything that’s happened sucked all the courage out of her though so she just says, “I was just asking what your shirt was made of. It’s pretty soft.”

“Oh.” There’s a really long silence where Marinette has no idea what to say and he isn’t offering any leeway. Eventually he just says, “I don’t really know. I don’t pay attention to that stuff, it’s all my father.”

“Right.”

-

Alya and Marinette are studying in the library after school, a pile of books litter their table.

“It’s not that big of a deal, right,” Alya asks. “My grades are good. I can still pass even if I fail this test.”

“You’re not going to fail, you’re brilliant,” Marinette insists. “If anyone is going to fail, it’ll be me. I missed three classes.”

“That’s your own fault. What were you even doing?”

Marinette shrugs and goes back to her book. She can’t exactly tell Alya the truth.

“Hey Alya. Hey Marinette.” Adrien slips into the seat next to Marinette. The two girls greet him and return to studying. Well, Marinette tries to continue studying but Adrien is looking at her and it’s distracting. It’s been quite some time since her failed attempt at asking him out and no amount of pep talks has encouraged her to try again.

Eventually, Marinette gives up and turns to Adrien, exasperated. “Is there something I can help you with?” she asks.

“Sorry,” he says, turning pink and rubbing his neck. “I couldn’t help but notice you were a bit distracted, kind of like you were checked out.”

Marinette stares at him. On a better day, where she wasn’t stressed about her impending doom, she might have had a better reaction. Alas, today is not that day. “The only thing I want to check out is you,” she huffs before hiding behind her book.

She can hear Alya snickering across the table.

“If you brought your library card, that can be arranged,” he responds. She can hear him moving, knows he’s doing some ridiculous pose that would make her swoon, but her eyes stay trained on her book.

-

“So…” Chat says as he walks across the edge of a roof.

“Yes?”

“Is everything okay?”

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t it be okay?”

“I dunno. You seem distracted.”

“It’s nothing. I’m just concerned about my test tomorrow. I spent all afternoon in the library studying but I still don’t feel prepared.”

“Hmm,” he says, stroking his chin. “I knew there was something up. You seemed pretty checked out.”

“Sorry, Kitty,” Ladybug says. She walks over to him and scratches the top of his head. She didn’t mean to make him think she wasn’t taking patrol seriously. “You know you’re the only thing I want to check out.”

His eyes widen for a second and then his whole face lights up. Ladybug looks at him, confused. It’s hardly the first time she punned in front of him; when they aren’t under life-threatening situations she has a pretty good sense of humor.

“What?”

“You… nothing. Never mind.”

He looks a bit miffed for the rest of patrol but Ladybug is still preoccupied with her test so she doesn’t have the brain capacity to fret over him. After another hour of a peaceful night, they part ways and say goodnight.

She’s lying in bed, trying and failing to fall asleep, when she realizes Chat Noir made the same joke as Adrien did. It’s probably a coincidence, both boys have a propensity for puns after all.

…but they also have blonde hair and green eyes. And they both do that thing where they rub their neck when they’re nervous or embarrassed. And when Adrien smiles—really smiles, not his model smile—it looks a lot like Chat’s. In fact, there were quite a few times one of her boys would remind Marinette of the other but she always pushed the thought back.

She tries to drop it, she really does, but in class the next day, Marinette says something stupid, like “Hey Adrien, do you think you can help me with these fractions? I’m not half as good as you are.”

And he says, “Of course, Marinette. I am partial to fractions.”

Totally normal interaction for them, really. But she forces herself to bring up math and fractions on patrol with Chat, just so she can use a similar pun (“Fractions are kicking my ass. I’m not half as good as the rest of my class”) to which he says, “You can always ask me, I’m partial to fractions.”

That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

So on it goes, for weeks. Marinette and Adrien pun in the day, Ladybug and Chat Noir use the same puns at night. Marinette is 98% sure Adrien is Chat Noir and is trying to figure out a way to turn that into dating when Chat, more or less, cracks.

“Okay,” Chat says on patrol. “I have had it. I can’t take any more of these puns, Marinette.” He detransforms and Adrien slinks down to his knees. A black blur flies out of his ring and Marinette assumes it’s his kwami.

“I…” Marinette says. There’s too much for her to take in—she was right, he knows who she is, he’s complaining about puns—and she doesn’t know where to start.

“How long have you known it was me?” she finally settles on. His shoulders slump even more.

“For a few months. Since we had that picnic and fought Beekeeper.”

“What? Adrien, that was ages ago! Why didn’t you tell me? How did you even find out?”

“You, uh, you ran into an alley and I thought it was to get away from the akuma so I was about to come rescue you when you, you know. I didn’t mean to! I even closed my eyes but I already knew what was happening so it was kind of pointless but yeah. That was how I found out.”

“And you decided to wait nearly six months before telling me you know my identity?”

“I didn’t want to disappoint you. I couldn’t…” he closes his eyes and turns away. Marinette kneels down in front of him, laying her hand on his shoulder. “I felt like I betrayed you. So then I tried to get you to figure out who I was. Except you didn’t really figure it out.”

“Well,” she says, blushing and looking down. “I did figure it out, eventually.”

“You did?”

Marinette nods.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Oh, like you can talk. Six months? Purr-lease.”

“Marinette,” Adrien says, and his voice is filled with so much warmth it makes her heart ache. “I really want to kiss you.”

“I, oh, um. You—ok,” she nods.

“Wait, really?”

“I mean, I’ve been flirting with you for ages, I thought I was pretty clear with mmm…”

Adrien cuts her off with his lips, which. She doesn’t really like being cut off but this is by far the best way to do it. His lips are warm and a little chapped and Marinette melts. She wraps her arms around him but she’s still Ladybug and her gloves are preventing her from really feeling him. She breaks away for a second, to drop her transformation, and when she returns his kiss is heated, hungry. It makes her toes curl.

“Marinette,” he rasps, before leaving a fiery trail of kisses along her jaw. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted this?”

She gasps when his lips make contact with her neck and he gently nips her pulse point. “D-do you have any idea how l-long I’ve wanted this?”

“N—”

“Much as I love watching you make out,” a voice interrupts them, making them jump apart, “some of us are starving over here.”

“Plagg,” Adrien yelps. A tiny cat-like kwami flies over to them. “Uh, sorry,” Adrien says, rubbing his neck, “this is Plagg, my kwami. He has no manners and loves embarrassing me.”

Marinette giggles. “It’s nice to meet you Plagg. And… sorry,” she adds, blushing. “We sort of got carried away. I have some cookies in my bag, if you want?”

“Ugh, of course you have cookies,” Plagg says. “Tikki has horrible taste.”

“152 years and this is the greeting I get?” Tikki asks.

“What do you want from me, I’m hungry.” But he flies over and nuzzles her face. It is one of the cutest things Marinette has ever witnessed and if she weren’t still caught up in the fact that she just made out with Adrien, she might have appreciated it more.

“This is Tikki,” Marinette says, gesturing to her kwami.

“It’s nice to officially meet you, Adrien. Marinette talks about you a lot.”

“Tikki!”

“What? He already knows you like him,” Tikki giggles. Marinette glares at her, betrayed.

“You should hear the way Adrien talks about Marinette. It’s always Ladybug this, Marinette that. Blah, blah, blah. I can never sleep.”

“Okay,” Adrien cuts in. “I need to feed Plagg so we should probably head out.”

“Right,” Marinette says. They both stand up and Marinette brushes invisible dirt off her pants. Neither of them move to leave, too many unspoken words between them.

“Well I’ll just—”

“Do you want to go on a date tomorrow?” Marinette turns bright red and looks away.

“Yes!” Adrien exclaims. “Yes, I would love to.”

“Great! I’ll, uh, text you! Details. For our date.”

“Sounds purr-fect, My Lady,” Adrien says, grabbing her hand and planting a kiss. It reminds her of what they were doing a few minutes ago and she hopes it becomes a common occurrence.

“Cat-ch you later, Kitty,” Marinette says, winking at him for good measure. It still takes them both a few moments (and a few prods from their kwamis) to actually leave each other and it makes Marinette smile. It might have taken way too long and far too many puns, but Marinette can’t help but be excited for their future. Knowing each other’s identities is a dangerous game, but Marinette is confident that together, they can take on anything.


End file.
